News

Fri 30 Nov 2012

Why Family Mediation?

Family law is undergoing enormous changes. From April 2013 legal aid will be unavailable for most cases involving family proceedings. Many will try and pursue their cases through the Courts without legal help. This may lead to problems of delay and log jams, as the understaffed Courts get overloaded with paperwork, some of which has to be rejected as those involved have not dealt with matters correctly.

Mediation has always been an alternative for Dispute Resolution. Whether the matter involves financial issues, children, whether a marriage has broken down or there is a wish to resolve a dispute between either cohabitants or civil partners, mediation is a very attractive route. It is invariably much cheaper than pursuing matters through the Court. You, the individual, and the other party remain in control of the process throughout. The mediator is there as a facilitator to try to encourage both of you to resolve the differences,identifying the issues and seeing if they can be addressed. The mediator is impartial and neutral, the process confidential and has a good chance of success.

In addition to the attractions of mediation being cheaper and faster than using the Courts to decide disputes, there are additional attractions to using a qualified solicitor mediator. The majority of mediators are not lawyers. While the mediator cannot give legal advice to the parties, information to assist them ina ddressing their issues is permitted. A legal mediator therefore brings an added dimension and perspective on the matters which require resolution which many non lawyer mediators are not in a position to offer.

To find out more about mediation and whether it is appropriate for your matter, please contact Keith Maynard, who is a solicitor and a family mediator. His details are:

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